1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an LSI or other semiconductor integrated circuit device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor integrated circuit device for enabling easy confirmation of manufacture information, operational status, failure occurrence information and other discrete information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Maintenance work for a system incorporating LSIs or other semiconductor integrated circuit devices sometimes requires management of discrete information concerning the semiconductor integrated circuit devices incorporated. Discrete information herein includes the serial number, electric characteristics, delay characteristics, and in some cases current-carrying time and failure history of such semiconductor integrated circuit devices.
Generally, an LSI, a semiconductor integrated circuit device, has its serial number printed on its surface. As to detailed information that cannot be inscribed on the surface of the chip entirely, for example, the electric characteristics and delay characteristics of such LSI, it must be managed by creating a separate file containing these pieces of information.
After the LSI chip has actually been incorporated in a certain electronic device, however, the surface of such chip cannot be seen from outside the device, so the only way to manage discrete information concerning the LSI is using a file described above. Media that can be employed to create such a file include a magnetic disk and other digital storage medium, and paper. Whatever medium may be used, entering and editing data in the file must be done manually.
Also, if a failure should occur in the electronic device incorporating such LSIs, the system maintenance manager must identify the LSI in which the failure has occurred, and write the finding into the above-mentioned file as part of the failure history. This is done manually or by the maintenance function of the electronic device incorporating such LSIs.
Furthermore, if a failure occurs in a specific LSI frequently, it is necessary to take out such LSI, replace it with a good one, and analyze the LSI taken out to identify the content of the failure. In this case, the system maintenance manager must prepare a report stating the content of the failure and the current-carrying time for the LSI, and hand it to the analyzing personnel, together with the LSI.
As described above, the conventional method of managing discrete information concerning semiconductor integrated circuit devices incorporated in an electronic devices requires management via files created for individual semiconductor integrated circuit devices, consuming considerable labor and time.
Management via files is done manually, generating a fear of mistakes when inputting or editing data.
In order to see the information printed on the surface of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, considerable labor- and time-consuming work to disassemble the frame of the electronic device is necessary, which is fairly impractical.
Preparation of a failure history for a semiconductor integrated circuit device and a report stating the content of a failure in the semiconductor integrated circuit device is done manually, requiring considerable time and labor as well as generating a fear of mistakes occurring.
Furthermore, a semiconductor integrated circuit device or a card containing a semiconductor integrated circuit device is taken out for failure analysis and replaced later, leading to a drawback that information concerning current-carrying time which is required for failure analysis cannot be managed uniformly within an electronic device.